Our First Full Day in San Diego at Best Western Lamplighter Inn & Suites
By traveltripz on Mar 28, 2008 in San Diego, Hotel Reviews, General, USA, Hotels
Breakfast is provided by the Best Western Hotel so we were up early to make the most of this before heading out to take a look around. The Best Western Lamplighter Inn & Suites is in a good position if you have a car, which of course we don’t. So if you are like us and are relying on public transport, here are some instructions to help you get around.
There are buses and the MT Trolley which will get you to all the main attractions, there is also a hop on, hop off sightseeing bus and the Old Town Trolley Tour - not to be confused with the MT Trolley system.
We decided to start with the MT Trolley which meant leaving our hotel and turning right into El Cajon Blvd. Walk up past the Howard Johnson Hotel and the Fitness centre and turn right into College Ave and walk to until you come to the San Diego State University (SDSU) which will be straight ahead. The walk is 1.5 miles from the hotel to SDSU and it is a nice easy walk. When you get to the Transit Centre go down the escalator or stairs and purchase your ticket from one of the vending machines. We intend to be out and about so we brought a 4 day pass for $15 each. Go through the doors to the left of the vending machines and go downstairs to the platform.
The trolley’s run every 15 minutes and it’s not too long before ours arrives. The transit center and the trolley are extremely clean and there is no graffiti anywhere. It is such a nice change to find a place where the people take pride in public property.
Another thing I noticed is that when an elderly or infirm person hops on the trolley, the young people stand up and offer their seat straight away. None of this ignoring them or looking the other way as is often seen in other centers.
We are on the Green Line trolley which takes us to Old Town.
The Plaza del Pasado or Old Town in San Diego is a historic town that captures the festive spirit of Mexico and where some of the old buildings have been turned into restaurants and shops and others such as the old courthouse and the dentist rooms are preserved so todays youth can see how things were in the past.
It is a beautiful day to spend time strolling around the shops and outdoor markets and we take our time enjoying the exotic aromas and colorful decor of the plaza. Old Town is considered to be the birthplace of California and in 1769 it became the first permanent Spanish settlement in California.
In 1846 the population numbered 250 and had grown somewhat and it was incorporated as a city in 1850 with the government activities centred around the Plaza Viejo. After the business district of Old San Diego was burned down in 1872, the business centre moved to the present day site of Downtown San Diego.
Some of historic buildings still standing are the Casa De Machado which was built in the adobe style of construction by Corporal Jose Manuel Machado for his daughter Maria Antonia Machado de Silvas, The Temple Beth Israel which was the first synagogue built in San Diego in 1889. Most of the other buildings are recontructions such as the Brick Courthouse and the George Johnson House. But all are worthy of a visit.
Then it is off to catch the Blue Line Trolley, which leaves from where the Green Line ends, and head off into the Civic Centre in Downtown San Diego.
By now it is lunchtime and we head over to Anthony’s Seafood Grotto which is right on the water of San Diego Bay. The food is absolutely delicious and our waitress is friendly and chatty. Once again our accents cause comment, most seem to think we are English and are pleasantly surprised when we state we are Aussies. This generally leads to conversations about how long it took us to get to the US, where we have been and how long we will be in town.
After lunch we head off down to the USS Midway Museum which has a 4 acre flight deck and gives visitors the opportunity to explore the ship with the aid of an audio presentation. The tickets are $15.00 and the ticket office suggest making sure you have 1.5 to 3 hours to complete the tour. We decide that we will return another day and do this tour.
By now we have picked up a number of maps and public transport timetables and routes and it turns out that we have a bus that stops right outside our hotel which will take us to the trolley transit station. Before we discover this piece of information we decide to hop of at another stop, other than the SDSU to see if it is closer to our hotel. So we hop off at the 70th Street stop, and turn right from the carriage and set off in what we hope is the right direction. The No.1 bus (which runs past our hotel) goes by, so we figure if go in the same direction we will at least be heading the right way.
We turn left into 70th Street and walk up a rather steep hill until we reach El Cajon Blvd. Here we turn left and continue. It is simply a matter of walking along El Cajon Blvd. We are at number 6900 when we turn onto the Blvd from 70th Street and our hotel is numbe 6474 so we have a way to go. We pop into Ralph’s on the way and pick up some groceries and a Ralph Card that gives us some excellent discounts on our items. I am a sucker for saving money and will join just about anything if it gives me a bargain.
Our feet are getting tired - thank goodness we brought good quality ARA walking shoes before our trip because we have walked many miles since we arrived in the States, and we are very happy when the hotel looms into sight.
After a nice hot cup of tea we head out to do some washing at the laundromat which is almost next door to the hotel. Turn left as you leave the hotel reception area and walk just past the Chicken Rotissere store where there is a block of shops with the laundromat. After putting the washing into the washer we go back to the hotel to watch some more Stargate episodes. Our hotel has more stations than any other we have stayed in so far and one is a sci fi station so this makes us very happy.
Paula also spends time on the phone to the internet company as we have been unable to connect to our hotel’s internet, which is included in the price of the room. It turns out that we have to update the drivers in our Acer notebook before it will connect to the right service.
Once the washing and drying has completed and we once again have nice clean clothes, we set off for dinner. We had intended to eat at the buffet at the Howard Johnson hotel that is just up the road, but it is closed when we get there. We continue up the road and come to a Mexican restaurant. The food turns out to be awesome and of course way more than we can eat.
Tomorrow we are going to head off to Tijuana on the blue line trolley.
